Technology is remarkable when it leads us to people

We forget this.

There are irresistible bits all over the world wide web, naturally. We stumble on these irresistible bits and do what any human does: tell someone else. Our “Like” and “Forward to” capitalizes on this innate human desire to share. And, naturally, some have been able to monetize this compulsion.

I like how in Groundswell, Li and Bernoff put people ahead of technology. They like to ask, “Who do you want to make contact with and what do you want to accomplish with them?” as a starting point. Then sort out the technology later. That seems right.

One way that technology leads us to people is in microbursts of information—very specific and very narrow information—about each other. I just stumbled on From the desk of…, a project by Kate Donnelly that shows, well, people’s desks.

Grant Snider’s work I see all the time. His easily-accessible takes on say ambition, or escape from digital life or rules for freelancers (pasted below) are themselves irresistible thought-pieces. I hesitate to call them comics. Even more remarkable is to see how his imagination flowers in such a tight, confined space.

Seeing someone’s desk is a bit like opening the door of their medicine cabinet or searching through a found wallet. The stuff we surround ourselves with has a way of telling on us. And especially the place we work says something about how our minds work. I like how technology (in this case social media) lets us tell fuller stories about each other—for those who want to hear. I also notice that the work I do for clients—even very technology-focused clients—opens up when there is a people-story to tell.